


Holding On To You

by orphan_account



Category: Ghostbusters (2016)
Genre: AU, F/F, Fake/Pretend Relationship, I know the summary really makes it look like one, Mutual Pining, Quite Literally, Slow Burn, this is not a one night stand fic
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-03-20
Updated: 2017-05-28
Packaged: 2018-10-08 13:10:30
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 9
Words: 15,672
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10387374
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: Erin was content with her boring 9 to 5 life. She didn't drink or do drugs, and her sex life was pretty much non-existent. So there was no logical explanation as to why there was a half-naked woman lying next to her in bed this morning.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you to my beta, Rose (ghost_tits) Idk where I would be without you!
> 
> This is my first fic and English is not my native language, so sorry for any mistakes they're totally on me

                                                        

 

For the past few years, Erin had a rather boring life, and she was happy with that. Every day she’d wake up at 6:45 am, get ready for work, leave her home around 8 am, teach at Columbia University, make dinner when she got home, and head to bed around 10 pm. On the weekends Erin would either prepare her lectures or read a book. She didn’t date, never did any drugs, nor did she drink. If she had done anything out of the ordinary yesterday, she would have known. So there was no logical reason as to why there was a half-naked woman lying next to her in her bed this morning.

Erin’s first reaction was to jump out of bed and to scream very loudly. This caused the woman to wake up as well. “Erin, what’s wrong?” the woman asked with a sleepy voice. The stranger had wild blonde curls and was wearing nothing but a pair of boxers. How did she know Erin’s name? Erin had never seen her before in her life.

“Who are you?” Erin asked.

“Are you okay, Erin?” 

“N-no, what are you doing in my apartment?” The woman looked confused and didn’t answer Erin’s question.

“You’re not a ghost, are you?” Erin asked.

“Last time I checked, no.”

“I don’t understand what’s going on. Who are you and what are you doing here?” 

“I’m your girlfriend,” she answered. Erin didn’t have a girlfriend. She was straight and even if she wasn’t, this person didn’t look like someone Erin would date. Erin was picky and only dated people who were just like her, normal. This woman looked anything but normal, even apart from the fact that she was only wearing boxers. She still hadn’t covered herself up, and it made Erin feel uncomfortable. She felt as if this all was some weird prank. There was no other logical explanation for what was happening here.

“I don’t even know your name, how could you be my girlfriend?”

“Jillian Holtzmann, the woman who made you realize that you swing both ways,” The blonde answered with a wink.

“I don’t swing both ways, I’m straight,” Erin protested.

“I’ve heard you say that before,” The woman laughed “Boy, how wrong you were.”

Erin started to get angry. “If this is some stupid prank, then it’s really not funny anymore.”

The woman gave her a concerned look as if she was actually surprised by Erin’s reaction. “Erin, I really think you lost your memory or something,” the blonde stated.

“I didn’t lose my memory. Last night I went to bed, alone,” Erin said, emphasizing on the word alone. “And this morning I woke up, and you’re just here trying to gaslight me into thinking we are in a relationship or something,” She continued angrily.

“Erin, we have actually been dating for more than a year now.” Erin interrupted the woman “Janice, Jillian, or whatever your name is, I don’t have any memory loss so you can stop playing this stupid game, because I won’t fall for it.”

“Holtzmann”

“What?”

“Holtzmann, that’s what people call me. That’s what you always call me,” Erin could hear some kind of genuine sadness in her voice when she said the last part.

This calmed Erin down a little bit. Maybe this woman was really convinced that they were dating. If Holtzmann really wanted to hurt her she would have done it by now, right? Erin sat down on the bed again.

“I think there might be some misunderstanding here,” Erin sighed “I mean if I had a girlfriend, I think I would remember, and I know for a fact that I haven’t dated anyone in years,” That last part came out sadder than Erin had anticipated. Holtzmann got up and moved closer to Erin.

“Does this look like the room of someone who’s not been dating for years?” Holtzmann asked.

Erin had been so occupied with finding a random person in her bed that she didn’t even notice that there were some small alterations in her room. Some stuff was laying around that she did not remember buying, but more importantly, there were pictures of her and Holtzmann on the nightstand.

Did Erin really have amnesia? She looked at the clock to make sure she wasn’t dreaming. It looked completely normal. To be sure she also looked into the mirror, and again everything looked completely normal. These reality checks always worked for her when she was dreaming, so why didn’t they work now?

“I don’t understand,” she mumbled to herself.

She grabbed her phone from the nightstand to see what the date was. The first thing she noticed was her lock screen. The generic background she always had for her lock screen was now replaced with a picture of her and Holtzmann. She checked the date, but there was nothing weird about it either. This confused Erin further. How could she have a clear memory of everything that happened the last few months and just wake up one morning with everything being so different?

Everything started spinning, and she felt nauseous. Apparently Holtzmann had finally put on a shirt in the meantime and was now sitting on the floor, right in front of Erin. She grabbed Erin’s hands and also seemed to be short for words. Erin’s brain tried to process what was happening, but she could not come up with any explanation for whatever was going on. This only made Erin feel more dizzy, and this time she actually had to run for the toilet. She clutched to the toilet seat but very little came out. She heard a knock on the bathroom door.

“Hey, Erin, can I come in?”

Erin had completely forgotten how to speak. She just sat there on the cold bathroom tiles, waiting for answers that may never come. Holtzmann knocked again, but this time she entered when she didn’t get a response back.

“Sorry, I just wanted to make sure that you didn’t pass out or anything.”

“I really don’t understand what’s happening,” Erin’s voice was raw, and tears started to form in her eyes.

“Well, let’s go through it together then, maybe we’ll find some answers,” Erin nodded. “So tell me everything you can remember from yesterday.”

“I –uh, I came home from work. I made dinner, no wait, first, I changed my clothes. Then I made dinner, and after that, I prepared my lectures,” Holtzmann interrupted her

“You were preparing lectures?”

“Yeah, I know it’s a lame thing to do on a Friday evening, but there was nothing on TV, and I had nothing better to do, so.”

“No, that’s not what I meant. What were you preparing lectures for?”

“I work at Columbia University?”

If Holtzmann was indeed Erin’s girlfriend, which Erin still found hard to believe, then she would know where Erin worked, right? So why did Holtzmann look so confused by Erin’s answer.

“This was yesterday?” Holtzmann asked.

Erin confirmed it, but Holtzmann didn’t seem to be any less confused by this answer. Erin continued with her story, not leaving any details out. She even told about the things she did the days before, but her story didn’t seem to make any sense to Holtzmann. Holtzmann told her that she didn’t work for Columbia anymore, but Erin didn’t believe that. She couldn’t imagine giving up a job at Columbia, she had just gotten her tenure.

Erin didn’t know what to believe anymore. She had clear memories of what she did the last couple of days, but those memories didn’t make sense anymore since a lot of things were different when she woke up this morning. Then there was Holtzmann, a woman who claimed she was dating Erin for more than a year and was telling her that her memories didn’t match what had actually happened that week. But the things Holtzmann told were hard to believe for Erin. So Erin asked Holtzmann to tell her everything from the moment they had met until what happened this morning.

Holtzmann explained that they had met when Erin came to Abby to ask her to stop selling their book after a man had come to her work talking about a ghost in the Aldridge Mansion. And that they went there and actually found a ghost.

“Wait, you’re saying that we found actual proof for the existence of the paranormal?” Erin interrupted Holtzmann’s story.

“Oh yeah, and she ecto-projected all over you. That stuff went everywhere, it was awesome,” Holtzmann said with a wide grin on her face, “I think I might still have footage of that.”

“You have footage of an actual ghost?”

For a moment Erin forgot all the weird stuff that had been going on that morning. If there was solid proof for the existence of the paranormal, then it would mean that she wasn’t crazy. Holtzmann left the bathroom with the promise of getting her phone and showing Erin the footage.

“Found it,” Holtzmann yelled from the other room. She returned with the phone in her hand and sat down next to Erin who was still sitting on the bathroom floor. The beginning of the footage was just Holtzmann making fun of Erin’s fashion choices in the Aldridge Mansion, but later on a ghost actually appeared just like Holtzmann promised. Erin felt really weird watching it. It was obviously her in the footage, but it also felt as if it was a completely different person despite all the similarities.

It was Erin, she behaved like her, she dressed like her, and as far as she could tell, there were also no physical differences between them. Yet, she had no memory of the event actually happening. Seeing her and Abby together felt off. She hadn’t seen Abby in years, but there they were, celebrating that they finally had proof of the existence of ghosts.

This was all so surreal to Erin, the proof was right there. She couldn’t deny anymore that she never met Holtzmann, there was footage of them together. Apparently, her life had completely changed overnight, and Erin had no recollection of these events ever happening. She felt like she was an intruder in someone else’s life, someone who had a way more exciting life than her. Erin had no clue how this happened. Was she brainwashed? Did she actually have amnesia? She still had a clear memory of what she did the last couple months, but did those things actually even happen?

Erin started to feel dizzy again. She told Holtzmann that she needed to lie down for a while to process what was happening and went back to bed.


	2. Chapter 2

Erin stared at the ceiling, obviously she couldn’t sleep after what had happened. Her sheets smelled like Holtzmann, which wasn’t bad, but it was a constant reminder of her current situation. Lying down was nice though, her head finally stopped spinning, and the biggest shock was over. Erin still couldn’t believe that this was real, even after her reality checks which she had repeated for a couple times. 

She picked up one of the pictures of her and Holtzmann from the nightstand. Erin had never imagined herself dating a girl, but she seemed happy in that picture. She wondered if she could ever be as happy in a relationship with a woman as the Erin in the picture. It made her feel weird, did this mean she was bi now? What else didn’t she know about herself?

Except from the pictures of her and Holtzmann she didn’t have any proof that she was bi. She couldn’t think of any woman she had ever been attracted to. Erin wondered if Holtzmann actually made her bi, if that was possible. Then again, Holtzmann was also almost the opposite of her type. So she couldn’t have immediately fallen in love with her, something probably happened between them that made Erin like her. She figured that she should ask Holtzmann about it later.

She put the picture back in its place and started wandering around her room. There were clothes on the floor that definitely didn’t belong to her. Erin opened her closet, she didn’t recognize 90 percent of the wardrobe, but she could tell which clothes belonged to her and which clothes belonged to Holtzmann.

Her eye fell on a MIT sweater, she guessed it belonged to Holtzmann. “PhD Nuclear Engineering,” Holtzmann’s voice startled Erin “but the sweater is yours, since you wear it more often than me.” Erin smiled, she stole her boyfriends’ sweaters in the past too. She wondered if she would do it even more if she were dating a woman.

“I made breakfast, by the way,” Holtzmann said “I did burn it a little bit, but I do that with basically everything. People, too, both figuratively and literally.” Erin hoped to god she was joking, but she feared that Holtzmann was serious.

“Don’t worry, I have an impressive collection of fire extinguishers. I even get discount whenever I buy new ones. They love me,” she almost sounded proud of that. Erin sat down and prepared for the worst when Holtzmann put the plate of scrambled eggs and toast in front of her. Even though it was burned, it still tasted pretty okay.

“What do you think happened to me?” Erin asked.

“I thought of amnesia at first, but that didn’t make sense because you do still have memories, they’re just different from what they should be,” Holtzmann said not caring that her mouth was still filled with egg. “So, I was thinking maybe this is my fault.”

“Your fault, how?”

“I’m not sure yet, butitmighthavebeenthatthingImadeyoutesteventhoughitwasntentirelysafeyet,” Holtzmann mumbled almost incomprehensibly quickly. 

“You made me test an unsafe weapon without knowing the consequences of it?”

“Well, I was sure it wasn’t gonna explode in your face, and it didn’t. So that’s kind of a win,” She said while taking another bite of her toast. How lightly Holtzmann was taking everything bothered Erin to no end.

“Holtzmann! What happened to me?” Erin demanded.

“That, I’m not really sure of. What should have happened was that the ghost or in this case the target would be transported to somewhere else, Michigan I guess.” Holtzmann looked like she already know that she had entirely screwed up when she didn’t know where the weapon transported the things to. “Then I thought that you maybe were Erin from the past and that you somehow got switched up with present Erin. And that made sense, until you mentioned that you had just gotten your tenure.” Erin gave Holtzmann a confused look. “You got fired before you got your tenure,” Holtzmann clarified.

“I was fired?” Erin couldn’t believe that she actually got fired from Columbia. She had done so much ass-kissing, there was no way she would purposely do anything that would get her fired.  
“They didn’t really like the ghost stuff. It was bad for their reputation,” Holtzmann had finished her plate and was now eating from Erin’s plate. Erin didn’t care she wasn’t hungry, and she certainly wasn’t hungry anymore after hearing that. 

“Oh my god.”

“Anyway, my guess is that you’re from like an alternate or parallel universe. Which would mean that the Erin from this universe, my Erin, is probably in your universe.”

“Do you think you can send me back?”

“I hope I can,” Holtzmann said while finishing Erin’s plate. “I think that my Erin isn’t exactly having the time of her life either. I bet she’s pretty pissed.” Erin was sure that she would be pretty pissed if her girlfriend sent her away to another universe. Pissed was even putting it mildly. 

Erin wondered if the Erin from this universe would hate her life where she was now. She always had been content with her life, but compared to her life in this universe hers seemed dull and boring. Erin couldn’t help but feel a bit jealous of this life. She had buried her passion for the paranormal a long time ago, but in this universe she had made her job out of it. She seemed to be happier in this life.

Erin always thought she was happy with her life, but was she actually happy? She basically lived the same day over and over. She became exactly what her parents always wanted her to be. She had never actually chased a dream, and now she was in this universe where she had chased a dream. A place where she seemed to have genuine friends, not people she only saw at work. She had known real friendship with Abby, but she had given that all up to live a life as ordinary as possible. 

“I’m gonna need you and Abby to help me though,” Holtzmann said as if she had just read Erin’s mind. Erin was anxious to see Abby again. Even if they were friends in this universe, they definitely weren’t friends where Erin came from. She felt a wave of guilt wash over her, what she did wasn’t right and she probably hurt Abby way more than she had intended to. “When are we going to see her?” Holtzmann looked at her watch. “As soon as you get dressed.”

Erin was definitely not prepared for this. She wished she had gotten a little more time to get ready, both physically and mentally, but according to Holtzmann, they were already late. She hoped she would have some time to mentally prepare for the confrontation on the ride to their workplace, but Holtzmann blasted 80’s pop songs way too loud for Erin to even think. 

‘Come On Eileen’ came on, and Holtzmann started singing along, except she would replace the name Eileen with Erin. She was making quite a show of it, so far that was possible while driving.

“Come on Erin, oh I swear what she means  
At this moment, you mean everything  
You in that dress, my thoughts I confess  
Verge on dirty  
Ah, come on Erin”

Erin never paid much attention to the lyrics of the song until now. Holtzmann noticed that Erin was blushing, which only made it more fun for her to continue.

“Come on Erin oh I swear what she means  
Ah come on let’s, take off everything  
That pretty red dress, Erin tell her yes  
Ah come on let’s, ah come on Erin  
That pretty red dress, Erin tell her yes  
Ah come on let’s, ah come on Erin, please”

Erin became redder than the dress mentioned in the song. When she noticed Erin’s reaction she grinned widely. “Please stop it, Holtzmann.”

“Aw, come on, Erin,” Holtzmann laughed at her own joke. Erin couldn’t deny that Holtzmann’s version of the song was kind of funny at first, but she feared that Holtzmann did this very often, judging by how easily she sang Erin instead of Eileen.

Not many 80’s songs later Holtzmann pulled up in front of a firehouse. “We’re there,” She got out the car and opened the door for Erin. She led Erin to the entrance and held the door open for her again. “You guys will never guess why we’re late,” Holtzmann shouted when they entered.

“I don’t even want to know, what the two of you did.” Erin recognized Abby’s voice immediately. She still looked and sounded the same as she did years ago. It almost made Erin feel nostalgic.

“I think I accidentally swapped Erin, with an Erin from an alternate universe.”

“You did what?”


	3. Chapter 3

Holtzmann had gathered Abby and another woman from the team that Erin didn’t recognize, to tell them what happened that morning. Both women looked in utter disbelief as Holtzmann explained everything. Apparently they were used to Holtzmann being reckless, but they didn’t expect that Holtzmann would let anything like this happen.

“I just can’t believe you put Erin in danger like that,” Abby said sternly. Holtzmann looked hurt by that comment, she looked down and fiddled with her hands. “You know, I would never put Erin in danger on purpose, right? Like I know I did bad, but I would never hurt her.” Her voice was soft and the look on Holtzmann’s face was almost heart-breaking. This morning Holtzmann seemed to take this all very lightly, but it looked like it had finally dawned on her that she was fully responsible for what happened.

“And what are you going to do when you can’t get Erin back?” Abby asked.

“I- I hadn’t thought about that yet.” Erin felt bad for her. Obviously this was all Holtzmann’s fault, and from what she knew about Holtzmann, she was pretty reckless, but she believed her when she said she would never hurt Erin purposely. Holtzmann probably didn’t even know that this could happen. Abby also seemed to notice that Holtzmann felt bad enough as it was and softened her tone.

“Hey, we’ll find a solution together, okay? We’re a team, you guys are not in this alone.” Holtzmann looked up and gave Abby a smile, but her eyes still looked sad.

“For what it’s worth, I think that me from this universe knows that you wouldn’t have done this if you knew it could be dangerous, and she probably forgives you,” Erin said in the hopes of comforting Holtzmann a little bit more. “Thank you, Erin,” Holtzmann said. She actually seemed to be relieved by Erin’s words. 

“It’s weird though, suddenly waking up next to someone you didn’t know before.” Erin smiled at Holtzmann who gave her a grin in return.

“Hey Erin, about that, do you even know who I am? Like do you even know me in your universe?” Erin didn’t know her, she had never seen her before even.

“What a ding-a-ling, I totally forgot to introduce you to Patty,” Holtzmann said “Erin, this is Patty, she is a historian, and she knows all the things that aren’t science.”

“Nice to meet you,” Erin said. “I don’t think I ever met you in my universe.” Erin felt weird saying my universe. It was weird enough that she woke up with a totally different life, the fact that she came into a whole different universe was even harder to believe. Everyone seemed to agree with her on that point, and they wanted to know as much as possible about her universe. If she and Abby were friends in her universe, if she was seeing someone, and so on. In return they told Erin as much as possible about their universe.

“The thing I want to know is, is this your own body or did the body stay here and you just got transported into the body?” Abby asked. Erin was about to answer that she wasn’t sure when Holtzmann raised the back of her shirt. “She kept her own body,” she stated.

“What? How do you know?” Erin pulled her shirt back down as quickly as she could. “I was checking for scratches and bruises.” Both Abby and Patty had a horrified look on their face.

“Did I get into a fight with a ghost or something?” 

Abby covered Holtzmann’s mouth before she could answer Erin’s question. “Don’t answer that,” she said. Erin finally also got what Holtzmann meant and her face became just as horrified as Abby and Patty’s. “Wait, is that why you were half-naked?”

“You were too before the switch happened,” Holtzmann winked and pointed finger guns at Erin.

“I’m so sorry, I should have kept my hand in front of her mouth,” Abby said. Erin turned bright red for the second time that day. Holtzmann, in contrast, looked very pleased with herself.

“Baby, I’m sorry you have to go through this,” Patty laid her hand on Erin’s shoulder. “Thank you,” Erin sighed.

“Okay, but in all seriousness, guys, we need to find a way to return both Erins safely. So I suggest we start working on that,” Abby said. And that’s exactly what they did the following couple of days, but each time they tried they were unsuccessful.

Erin started to get used to having Holtzmann around in her apartment. However, Erin wasn’t completely comfortable sleeping next to Holtzmann, so they both took turns sleeping on the couch. They had tried to sleep in the same bed on the first night, but Holtzmann would accidentally hold Erin in her sleep or say some inappropriate things while sleep talking. Every morning Erin would wake up with the smell of burned breakfast and sometimes with the sound of the smoke detector.

“You know, Holtzmann, we can also just have cereal in the morning,” Erin said when she was woken up by the fire alarm once again. The first time Holtzmann started a fire, Erin panicked, but now she didn’t even look up anymore when she saw Holtzmann running around with a fire extinguisher.

“Where’s the fun in that?” 

“The fun in that is that you keep your lungs healthy from not breathing in smoke every morning.”

“Dr Gilbert, are you saying that you care about me?”

“I have lungs too, you know?” She did care for Holtzmann though, but Erin didn’t like to admit that. Over the past days she had grown fond of her new roommate, but she also knew not to grow too attached to her because sooner or later she had to go back to her own universe. With how everything was going, it would be rather later than sooner, it seemed to be impossible to reverse the weapon that had sent her here. In the meantime Erin and Holtzmann had to act like a couple in public as to not raise any suspicion with anyone. It wasn’t much, just occasionally holding hands in public, nothing more. 

Since there wasn’t much progress in sending Erin back, Abby had suggested that Erin needed to get to know Holtzmann better in case they had to go to events together. Erin would spend every lunch break together with Holtzmann, just asking her every question that came to her mind. She would make notes and try to remember everything. This, however, didn’t particularly help with not caring too much for Holtzmann. She cared for Holtzmann like she would care for any good friend. Because that’s what they were, good friends, nothing more.

“Erin, guess what I just set on fire!”

“What did I just say about smoke being bad for your lungs?” Erin stood up and put out the small fire that Holtzmann just had started in the kitchen. “Party pooper,” Holtz mumbled under her breath.

“Why do you like fires so much?”

“They just happen, I swear.” Erin rolled her eyes. “Did you wanna know that for your notebook?" Holtzmann teased.

“No, but speaking about it, there is something that I-uh wanted to ask you. It might be a little personal though, so if you don’t want to answer it for some reason then that’s okay.” Erin had wanted to ask this question earlier, but she was afraid it was a sensitive subject somehow.

“You wanna know when I became so hot?” Holtzmann winked at Erin.

“Holtzmann!”

“Sorry.”

“What I wanted to know is why you don’t go by your first name, is there a reason for it or something?” Holtzmann let out a breath, apparently she was prepared for a more personal question than that.

“I always thought I would marry Gillian Anderson, can you imagine how awkward that would be name-wise? Gillian and Jillian Anderson. So I figured that if I would go by Holtzmann we wouldn’t have that problem anymore.” Erin wasn’t entirely sure if she believed Holtzmann, but she decided to let it go. “Do you have any other questions?”

“Yeah, how did I ever fall for you?”

“My, my, my, Erin already confessing your feelings for me. That was a lot faster than the last time.” Erin started to get flustered, she should have phrased that differently. “I meant the Erin from this universe.”

“Suuure.”

“Holtz, stop it.” Holtzmann kept smirking at Erin not saying a word. “Stop that too.” Holtzmann let the smile go, but it was still very much visible in her eyes. At the firehouse Holtzmann didn’t let Erin forget about it either. Patty had to intervene before things got out of hand.

“Guys, please behave. We can’t have you two acting like children when we have dinner with the mayor tonight.” Erin had totally forgotten about the dinner party. They all had agreed to remain silent about the incident, afraid that the mayor would cut their budget. Tonight she had to pretend like everything was normal, that she and Holtzmann were dating. And if this didn’t make her anxious enough, she had totally forgotten about it. She didn’t have an outfit planned or anything.

“Erin, I need to speak with you,” Holtzmann said. She looked serious to the point that it almost scared Erin. Patty left the room as if she knew what was coming. Holtzmann let out a big sigh. “So, ehm, about tonight,” she started “I –uh I was going to propose to you tonight. Abby and Patty know about it, but the Mayor knows about it too.” This did not help Erin calm down at all. “So what you’re saying is that-“ Erin knew exactly what Holtzmann was going to say but she couldn’t get the words out of her mouth. “I’m still going to propose to you tonight,” Holtzmann finished Erin’s sentence. “It’ll look suspicious if I don’t do it.” Erin nodded. A variety of emotions were rushing through her. It was mainly fear that was going through her, she was so terrified of screwing everything up. She had to pretend to be surprised, and she had to say yes and act genuinely happy.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Guys I have a question, I also make art and I kind of made two drawings already for chapter 1. One of them you can see here on my tumblr: http://hcltzmvnn.tumblr.com/tagged/my-fanfiction. Should I start making illustrations to go with every chapter? And if so would you like to see them on here as well? (I do have to figure out how to do that then)


	4. Chapter 4

 

Maybe pretending to be happy with the proposal wouldn’t be that hard after all. Erin had spent a big part of her life feeling unwanted and worthless, and she would be lying if she said she hadn’t felt a bit like that in her recent ‘previous’ life too. Of course she was successful in her career, but that was about it. Here was someone who actually loved her, at least a version of her, enough to actually propose to her. Someone actually loved her enough to show it in front of an entire restaurant, that alone made Erin beyond happy.

It didn’t take away how extremely nervous she was, she had tried on many different outfits and nothing felt quite right. Nothing felt special enough for the occasion. It didn’t matter to her that it was all fake because it wasn’t going to be fake for the other people in the restaurant.

“Are you ready?” Holtzmann yelled from the other room. Erin groaned, she still had no idea what to wear, and they were about to leave. Holtzmann knocked and came in without waiting for Erin to reply. It was a thing she always did, and Erin often wondered why she still even bothered knocking. Of course Holtzmann had seen her in her underwear before, well not her but there were probably little to no differences between her and the other Erin, but it still made Erin feel a bit uncomfortable.

“Erin where are your pants? You can’t go to the dinner without pants.” Erin didn’t process what Holtzmann just said right away. She didn’t expect Holtzmann to actually look as good as she did. She was used to her wearing vests, but now she was wearing one in a formal manner, and it looked absolutely stunning. Holtzmann seemed to notice that Erin was looking at her and grinned. “Like what you’re seeing?”

“You look b- you’re wearing nice clothes,” Erin smiled awkwardly. “Can you maybe help pick something for me too?” Holtzmann grabbed a dress out of the closet almost immediately. Erin decided to go with whatever Holtzmann picked for her to make it a little easier for her, to make it her evening. She couldn’t imagine what Holtz was going through, having to propose to someone who is not quite her girlfriend. This should have been their special night. Holtzmann was pretty good at hiding her true feelings from Erin, but she knew she was having a hard time as well.

“How are you feeling, about all this?” Erin asked.

“It’s kind of weird guess, I,” Holtzmann replied “What about you?” Erin was under a lot of pressure. She knew what to do and what to say, but she was still afraid that she wasn’t going to react convincingly enough. She didn’t want to say that to Holtzmann though, she had enough worries already. So Erin assured her that she was going to be fine. Once she put the dress on, they had to leave already. Erin kept nervously glancing in the car mirror. “Erin, don’t worry, you look amazing.”

“Thank you, it’s just that I’m really nervous, aren’t you?”

“Yeah, but at least I know for sure that you’re going to say yes, so that makes it less scary than the real deal,” Holtzmann smiled. It wasn’t a very convincing smile. “It’s kind of a crappy situation, isn’t it?” Holtzmann nodded, she still tried to hide from Erin it was hurting her more than she was letting on. She wanted to prevent Erin from feeling second best, even though this Erin was not her girlfriend. Holtzmann noticed how this Erin had changed around her, just like how her Erin had changed around her when they were slowly becoming more than friends. Erin presumably didn’t know that she was developing feelings for Holtzmann yet, but Holtzmann knew exactly what was going on. She had seen this before and knew exactly what it meant. 

 

Erin was staring intensely at her notebook that she apparently brought with her. She knew Holtzmann would help her out if it was necessary, but it was comforting to look at the scribbled down information. She used to do that before exams too, desperately trying to remember everything last moment was less nerve wrecking than just facing what was about to happen. “Ready?” Holtzmann asked. The car had stopped moving, this was it. Erin took a deep breath and put the notebook away. “Yeah, I’m ready.” They walked into the restaurant holding hands. It was nice to have someone to hold on to while facing something scary. There were not many moments in her life when Erin had that in her life.

 

“The worst thing that can happen is that we don’t get a free desert,” Holtzmann whispered into her ear. She laughed, Holtz was right, there wasn’t too much that could go wrong. She had been on a thousand fancy dinners with colleagues, this wasn’t much different. Erin and Holtzmann were the last people to arrive at the table. Erin almost made the mistake to introduce herself to the mayor, but she stopped herself right in time.   

So far the dinner was going great, and her nerves had almost disappeared. Both Abby and Patty were of great help too. Whenever she couldn’t answer something they would either jump in or change the subject. The only scary thing that was yet to happen was the proposal, which could be anytime soon. A waiter stopped at the table and asked Holtzmann something about the deserts. This was it, Erin tried to remain calm and tried to pretend as if she was oblivious to what was going on. Holtzmann cleared her throat, “Before we start with the desert, I want to make a toast.” Erin felt the nerves rush up again.

“I’m not really good with toasts, but I-uh I want to thank you all. Without you, Erin and I would have never been what we are now. If it wasn’t for Abby, I would have never met Erin, and if it wasn’t for Patty, we would have never admitted our feelings for each other, and if it wasn’t for this job, we would have never been around each other to fall in love in the way that we did. So I wanted to thank you for that, but the person I want to thank the most is Erin. I know we have been through a lot together, and you were always there for me, even when I sometimes felt like a complete stranger to you,” Holtzmann’s voice was a bit funny. She talked fast and she was noticeably nervous.

“But in those moments you taught me something, and that is that you will always be easy to love. Even if there are a thousand universes where you exist, I would still care and love every single version of you. Because, you’re more special than you often realize. I know that when you look in the mirror, you see a lot of flaws. But when I look into the same mirror I see the things that you call flaws, and to me they’re all beautiful because they make you who you are. And to me you are perfect. And maybe we have only been together for a little more than a year, but I know that I will never be able to love someone more than you,” Holtzmann paused a second to catch her breath. She got down on her knee and presented Erin the ring “Erin Gilbert, will you please marry me?”

Erin had been prepared for a proposal, but she hadn’t been prepared for this. Tears were streaming down her cheeks, and she didn’t seem to get any words out. It had all looked so easy when they walked in to just say yes, but now nothing felt fake. She was choked up and barely able to move. “Erin?” Erin nodded “Is that a yes?” Holtzmann asked as if she didn’t know the answer already. The whole restaurant was silent waiting for Erin to answer. “Yes,” Erin managed to get out. 

 

Holtzmann got up and pulled her into a hug. Erin didn’t even notice that there were people applauding. “You know that I meant what I said, right?” Holtzmann asked. Erin nodded, it was the most beautiful thing that anyone had ever said to her. “It was beautiful, thank you.” The whole proposal left a weird feeling in Erin. She remembered the first day she saw Holtzmann and not being able to imagine why she would ever date her. Now she could and it was scary, she was the same person as the other Erin no matter how hard that was to believe. That Erin had fallen in love with Holtzmann, which meant that she could too.

Falling in love with Holtzmann would not make anything easier. The reality was that she probably would not stay in this universe forever. One day they will succeed and get her back to her own universe. For the first time she felt actual dread to go back to her old life and leave what she had here. She always thought that having a good career was the most important thing in life because that was what her parents had told her. She shook off that thought, she could worry about this later. 

 

The thoughts hadn’t left her mind though, it kept her up that very night. Holtzmann walked into her bedroom and flopped herself next to Erin. “I’m sorry but that couch is even worse for my back than the proton packs, and that’s saying something,” Holtzmann said. “It’s okay,” Erin replied. “Hey, what’s up?” Holtzmann asked upon noticing the sad undertone in Erin’s voice. “This life here, it’s so much better than where I came from. It’s depressing, really. I’ve been living the same day over and over again for years before I came here,” Erin sighed “Here I have you, Abby, and Patty. I made something of my life here, I liked to believe I did that as well with my job, but it’s not the same.”

“It’s never too late to change your life. I know you like to be certain of everything and to have a waterproof plan, but what’s the fun in not leaving any room for surprises? And if you miss me, you can always summon me by writing your phone number on a piece of scrap metal in a dumpster. I will find you in 3 to 5 business days.”

“That’s oddly reassuring, thank you,”


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi guys!   
> I haven't updated in a while cause I was busy with school. From now on I'll try to upload regularly again :D

When Erin woke up, she was almost completely lying on top of Holtzmann, who already seemed to be awake. “Morning,” Holtzmann groaned, but she did have a smile on her face indicating that she didn’t mind waking up like this too much. Erin quickly rolled away from Holtzmann and apologized. “Don’t worry, I’m used to this.” Erin gave Holtzmann a somewhat sheepish grin in reply. Erin was aware she was quite a wild sleeper, but she never actually awoke atop of someone. Maybe Holtzmann didn’t push her off as previous boyfriends might have done in the past.

“I didn’t wake you up, did I?” Erin asked.

“Nah, I was even almost starting to miss it. Everything is better than that godforsaken couch, that really did a number on my back.” The couch had indeed gotten really uncomfortable, and the frequent use of it lately hadn’t exactly made it better. “I might have to set it on fire as payback, we can go to Ikea afterwards to buy a new one.”

“I suggest we don’t do that,” Erin said well aware that Holtzmann would actually set the couch on fire that second if she was allowed to. “We can also get our couch somewhere else,” Holtzmann suggested. “I was talking about the setting things on fire part of your plan. You have no idea what toxic fumes could come free when you set it on fire, that’s incredibly bad for our health.”

“What if I set the couch only a little bit on fire, so there’s only a little bit of toxic fumes. I mean by now I’m pretty used to breathing in toxic things. If I die, they probably have to dispose of me as radioactive waste.”

“If you die? I’m sometimes surprised at how you’re still alive,” Erin laughed. “Well, I’ve been exposed to a lot of weird stuff who knows what kind of effect it has on the long term.” At this point, Erin couldn’t even tell if she was being serious or not. Holtzmann was lax with safety measures after all. “I don’t think it can be anything in your benefit though.”

“We’ll see,” Holtzmann mumbled while getting out of bed “I’m still gonna set the couch on fire though.” Erin threw her pillow at Holtzmann, which she skillfully dodged. “I will literally buy you anything you want at Ikea, as long as you’re not purposely going to set any furniture on fire.” That was probably one of the dumbest things Erin ever said in her entire life. It was too late to take it back now, Holtzmann was already grinning like a fool.

Once arrived at Ikea Erin learned how much of a mistake she had made when Holtzmann tried to take two trolleys and asked Erin where hers was. “Not to be a stereotype, but maybe we need to U-haul our stuff to our apartment. I mean I emptied the ecto-1 so most of it will probably fit, but just to be sure y’know,” Holtzmann said looking at the trolleys. “We haven’t even entered yet! Besides we’re not billionaires, Holtzmann, we’re going to spend within reason.” 

“You promised, Erin! You promised.” This was exactly when Erin realized she had made a huge mistake. How had she forgotten that Ikea was famous for being the cause of so many divorces? She wasn’t even really engaged to Holtzmann, she didn’t even know what she and Holtzmann were. “Holtzmann, I will dump your butt at Småland if you keep acting like a little child.”

“You’re making it sound like it’s something bad, but I, for one, love Småland.”

“Of course you do,” Erin sighed wondering how she would be able to survive this trip. When she finally convinced Holtzmann they would only need one trolley she took a deep breath and told herself she was able to get through this without fighting. She ignored Holtz grabbing a handful of Ikea pencils as soon as they entered, which she already saw as a small success. She also managed to listen to the tragic backstories Holtz made up about the rooms. She was in the middle of her story when she suddenly stopped talking and burst out in laughter. “Erin, look at this.” Holtzmann pointed at a bathroom mirror named Fräck. “I need that fräcking mirror, Erin.” Holtzmann was almost crying now. Erin laughed too, maybe Ikea wouldn’t be that bad, she thought. They both were in a good mood, what could go wrong?

“Don’t you think I have a nice Räcka?” Holtzmann asked as she held a curtain rod in front of her chest. Again she made Erin laugh, but as time passed the jokes became gradually worse. “Erin, this fridge is so beautiful I nearly Nutid,” Holtzmann wheezed. “Goddamnit, Holtz, please cut it out.” Holtzmann grabbed a placemat, she picked out earlier “Don’t you mean Goddag?”

“Holtzmann, you already made me swear so can you just cut out the annoying jokes? All I wanted to do is to buy a stupid couch, which we haven’t even looked for by the way, and maybe get some food. And you- you just keep acting like a little kid. I’m really tired from everything so please stop it, okay?” Erin didn’t even know whether she was annoyed, angry or sad anymore, it was all too much to handle right now. She didn’t even care anymore that people were staring at them, she just wanted to get out of this place. Holtzmann had a guilty look on her face, it reminded Erin of the face she pulled when Abby had scolded her for getting Erin in this universe. “I-I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have… I just snapped, it wasn’t my intention. It’s all so much you know? I’m really sorry,” Erin continued.

Holtzmann still looked like a puppy who just had been shouted at and it made Erin feel awful. “Shall we just get some food first, and then continue?” Holtzmann nodded in reply. “I think I should be the person apologizing though. It’s been a tough couple of days for you so far, and I didn’t always take that into consideration. Hug it out?” Holtzmann spread her arms wide and pulled Erin into a big hug while mumbling even more apologies. “Shall we go to the restaurant then?” Erin had made it sound so easy but actually finding it was nearly impossible. After going through the Ikea for what felt like ten times they stopped at the sofa section and decided they probably should pick a couch before that part disappeared as well.

After finally finding a sofa they decided that they needed to get out of there as soon as possible. “You know, I hate to say this but I don’t even care for the meatballs anymore. I feel like every single piece of furniture is making fun of me. I hate this place,” Erin groaned. “Erin, don’t you ever give up on the meatballs. You deserve endless meatballs and I’m gonna get you endless meatballs.” Erin wondered where Holtzmann got the willpower to go on, but she seemed to be determined to find the meatballs. This time she even managed to find the restaurant, without having to go through the warehouse twenty times.

When it was finally their turn to order the food, Erin’s phone rang. She asked if Holtzmann could order for her and stepped out of the line to answer it. “Hey, where are you guys?” Abby’s voice sounded over the phone. “We needed a new couch so we’re at Ikea. Is something wrong?” Erin asked. “Wait, you’re at Ikea with Holtzmann? Are you okay?” Abby sounded worried, and if Erin was being, honest she totally understood why. “Yeah, I’m fine. Why were you calling?” Erin was aware she didn’t sound totally convincing, but Abby decided not to question her further. “Our high school is having a reunion, and I wanted to know if you and Holtz were also going.” Erin immediately went cold thinking back to her high school years. “I don’t know, Abby. I’ll come back to it on Monday,” Erin answered.

Making plans felt odd, especially since she didn’t know if she still would be here. So far everything they tried had failed, but that didn’t mean they had given up. Erin wasn’t so keen on leaving anymore, but it would be unfair for Holtzmann and for her other self to stop trying. “Okay, I hope you found your way out of Ikea before Monday,” Abby joked. “ Uh Abby, I got to go, we kind of have a meatball crisis I’m afraid. I’ll see you Monday,” Erin hung up and looked at Holtzmann who was approaching her with a mountain of meatballs on her plate.

“Sorry, I wanted to get more but this was everything they were allowed to give me,” Holtzmann said with a dorky smile. “Oh my god, how are we even going to get that to a table without dropping anything?” so far Holtzmann was doing a marvelous job at balancing the meatballs, but Erin could already see it go horribly wrong. “Erin, have a little trust in me, will ya? I’m an expert.” To Erin’s surprise, Holtzmann wasn’t wrong and she managed to get the tray to a table without dropping a single meatball. “Anyway who was calling ya?” she asked as they sat down. Erin explained that Abby had called about the reunion and that she probably didn’t want to go because of the memories tied to her high school years.

“Well, if we were to go, we could smash up everyone’s car,” Holtzmann suggested. “That does sound tempting, but I don’t know if it’s a very good plan.” Erin watched Holtzmann in awe as she had already managed to devour a third of the meatball pile. “I can also be your trophy wife,” Holtz suggested still chewing on multiple meatballs. “Yeah let’s do that,” Erin laughed sarcastically. “Okay, then that’s a date.”

“No, I was joking.”

“Too late hot stuff, you got yourself a trophy wife.”


	6. Chapter 6

“Erin, have you already thought about the reunion?” Abby asked first thing when Erin set a foot in the firehouse. “Good morning to you too,” Erin had expected this question somewhere today, but not first thing in the morning “can I speak with you for a moment, in private?” Abby seemed to be surprised by this answer but agreed almost immediately. Erin didn’t feel exactly comfortable around Abby, yet. Probably due to the fact that she hadn’t seen her in ages before coming here. Here they were friends again, just like that as if nothing had ever happened between them. But Erin didn’t have anyone else to turn to and figured this was her only option.

“It’s about Holtzmann,” Erin started as soon as they were alone. “What about her?” Abby had a look on her face that scared Erin a bit. Abby’s expression reminded Erin of the look her father had on his face when she had introduced her first boyfriend to her parents. Erin doubted if it was a good plan to talk about this with Abby, she could’ve just cropped up her feelings like she always did. “I don’t, it’s nothing, nevermind,” Erin blurted out and started walking towards the door. “I came on too strong, didn’t I?” Abby had regretted her first reaction immediately “I’m sorry, I just care a lot for Holtz and I don’t want to see her get hurt.”   

“I-I don’t want to hurt her, this had more to do with me than with her I guess. The whole reunion thing, it’s just a lot.” Whatever courage Erin had collected to tell what was on her mind had vanished and she kept what she actually wanted to say to herself. “I know you don’t want to hurt her, I’m sorry. I can’t even imagine what you’re going through, but it must be hard though.” Erin simply nodded in reply. “Thank you for talking, now I’m going to do my work,” with that Erin somewhat awkwardly left Abby. Abby could hit her head against a wall. She knew Erin hadn’t told her what she originally wanted to tell her, and she had just scared her away. All she could do was hope Erin would bring it up again.

Erin wasn’t really working, she just sat at the desk fidgeting with her hands. “Are you okay?” Erin looked around to see if Patty was actually talking to her. They were alone in the room and upon noticing that, Erin shrugged in reply to Patty’s question. “You really aren’t, huh?” Erin had never really talked to Patty alone, but she seemed like a nice person. “No, not really.”

“You can talk to me about it, I’m a good listener.”

“So much happened since I got here, and I guess I’m just having a hard time processing it. When I came here, basically everything I knew about myself was shattered. Suddenly I had a girlfriend, I didn’t work for Colombia anymore, I’m suddenly friends with Abby again.” Patty nodded understandingly and didn’t seem to judge her at all, which calmed Erin down. She decided she trusted Patty enough to tell her everything.

“I thought I was straight when I woke up here. At first, I thought it was just me from this universe who wasn’t straight. Then the whole proposal thing happened, and I started to question it. Now there’s this reunion coming up and I’m expected to go with Holtz, and it feels like I have to accept this big thing I just discovered about myself and be public about it so fast and it’s really scary to me. The proposal was different because I didn’t really know anyone, but this is going to be a big thing with people I used to know and they weren’t always nice to me.” Erin was on the verge of crying now.  

“Wow, that really is a lot. I think we all kind of forgot that you’re not exactly like the Erin we know. And because of that, we might have asked a bit too much of you too soon. Have you already told Abby and Holtzmann about this?” Erin shook her head, afraid she might cry if she opened her mouth. “Shall I talk with them for you?” Patty offered. Erin thankfully took that offer.

After Patty talked to them Abby and Holtzmann came up to Erin. “I just wanted to say that I’m sorry again for how I reacted. I understand if you don’t want to come to the reunion. We also think that maybe you should get a few days off so you can process stuff,” Abby said. It wasn’t exactly like Erin was doing a lot around the firehouse. She had taken over the receptionist's job and sometimes helped them with equations where she could. Erin had never met the receptionist, according to Abby, he was on a holiday with his boyfriend. But she also heard he was practically useless and that they could do fine without him for a couple days or weeks.

So far there had only been two busts, Erin hadn’t gone with them because it was too dangerous if she didn’t know how the weapons worked. In that time, Erin had just wandered around in the firehouse. “I can work on sending you back from home, I promise I will only let things explode a little bit.” Erin wondered how much Patty had told Holtzmann, but if she did tell her everything it didn’t seem to bother her too much. “You can’t make things explode a little bit, an explosion is an explosion.” Holtzmann laughed at Erin’s reaction. It reminded her of her Erin before they started dating. Then it came to her, this basically was her Erin before they started dating. Her Erin had also needed time when they first admitted their feelings to each other.

In the beginning of their relationship, they hadn’t even told Abby and Patty until Erin was comfortable enough to come out. Now they had practically yanked her out of the closet before she even knew she was in one, and that probably couldn’t be healthy. All Holtzmann could do to make up for it was to be there for her, and maybe pamper her a little bit on her days off. At least she knew Erin well enough to know exactly how to do that. “Erin, let’s go home. We’re gonna do fun stuff,” Holtzmann said as she winked at Erin.

“That came out so wrong, Holtzy,” Patty said and Abby nodded in agreement “but have fun, you guys.” Holtzmann practically dragged Erin out of the firehouse, but upon noticing she had forgotten her stuff she ran back inside. When she returned she had a duffle bag jammed with miscellaneous stuff under her arms. “Let’s godio!”

“Is this really needed?” Erin asked. “What, this? Yes, a proper engineer always needs her best tools, even when working from home.” Holtzmann almost seemed offended that Erin had even asked her that.

“I was talking about the days off, I mean I can do some stuff. It’s not like I’m ill or anything.”

“Yes, that’s also definitely needed. Even the best people need mental health days from time to time. I promise you’ll feel better.” Holtzmann threw her duffel bag in the trunk and opened the car door for Erin like the real gentlewoman she was. Erin tried to ignore the butterflies that were caused by this small gesture. Get your shit together, Erin. She just opened a car door for you. Erin noticed that this occurred way more often lately. Crushing on Holtzmann still felt a bit wrong. Erin wasn’t quite sure if it was because Holtzmann was technically already taken, or if it was just the result of growing up and living in a heteronormative society.

“You’re quiet, wanna talk about it?” Erin wondered how much Patty had actually told Holtzmann and Abby, and if she actually knew that she liked her. Then she decided that it didn’t really matter. It sounded depressing, but probably in the near future she would be sent home and she would never see Holtzmann ever again. At least not in this universe. It almost hurt to even think about it.

“I’m not sure if Patty told you this, but I think I’m starting to like you,” Erin paused for a second “as more than a friend.” Erin felt somewhat relieved now she had confessed this. Holtzmann didn’t seem to be too surprised by this revelation. And to Erin’s relief, she also didn’t seem upset by it. “I feel kind of stupid that I’m discovering this part of me just now.”

“It’s not stupid, it’s the society that we live in that’s stupid. You don’t always know from a young age, some people only discover it when they’re 80.”

“When did you know?”

“When I started watching the x-files, so I must have been around 12 or 13 years old.”

“That’s pretty young.”

“Yeah, but I don’t like men at all. That might have made it a little easier for me to notice.”

“Did you immediately know you were gay?” Erin felt as if she was interrogating Holtzmann, but she couldn’t help herself from asking these questions. She just wanted to understand how everything worked so she could figure herself out better “I’m sorry if I ask too much.”

“Asking things is always a good thing. To answer your question, I did struggle a bit with compulsory heterosexuality, but I figured it out pretty quick.” Erin was quiet again for a little while. She just looked at Holtzmann’s face, silently admiring it. “You’re really pretty, you know?” Erin said, breaking the silence again. A wide grin appeared on Holtzmann’s face.

“You too, hot stuff.” The smile remained on Holtzmann’s face. Erin blushed at the nickname Holtz just gave her. The butterflies made her feel like a lovesick high schooler, but this time she didn’t bother ignoring or denying them.   


	7. Chapter 7

When Erin woke up she was alone, it wasn’t exactly something abnormal but something definitely was off. When she looked around there was no sign of Holtzmann, which also wasn’t necessarily abnormal. However, something was really off, there was no sign of Holtzmann having ever existed in this apartment at all. “Fuck,” Erin mumbled to herself. When she checked her phone everything seemed to be right, except the picture of her and Holtzmann she had set for her lock screen was now replaced with a generic one. This was not a good sign at all.

Erin got out of bed and opened her closet and was met with an array of tweed suits. I didn’t go back in time, did I? She checked the date on her phone again, but it was exactly the date she would have expected it to be when she woke up this morning. Erin couldn’t imagine breaking up with Holtzmann nor Holtzmann breaking up with her. There had to be a different explanation for all of this. Erin’s eyes fell on a card she didn’t recognize. She picked it up and read the text on the inside of the card. Congratulations with your tenure! Love, mom and dad.

Erin dropped the card, something was horribly wrong. She didn’t belong here.   

* * *

 As soon as Erin and Holtzmann got home, Holtzmann had put Erin under a blanket and made her some tea. “I told you I’m not sick, you don’t have to do this.” Erin didn’t exactly want her to stop, but she also felt a bit guilty for all the effort Holtzmann was already putting into this. “I know you’re not sick, but everyone deserves to be treated like a princess once in a while.” Erin was pretty sure she wasn’t really deserving of any of this, but by now she knew Holtzmann well enough to know that protesting would be useless.  

She cuddled up against Holtzmann and watched discovery channel with her. How wrong she had been for all those years when she had thought she didn’t want or need a relationship. She felt calm and happy, something she hadn’t felt for a while in her own universe. She had been too caught up with getting her tenure, it had taken over her life. She was constantly busy with trying to become better and impressing pretentious people, causing her to feel stressed all the time. Now she barely felt like her old self anymore. “Hey Erin, I have an idea we can bake cookies together,” Holtzmann suggested.

* * *

 When Erin had gone to the firehouse it had been empty, another sign that something was wrong. She hailed a cab and told the taxi-driver to go to the Chinese restaurant where they had a lab before they moved into the firehouse. She had to find Holtzmann or Abby, or anyone who could help her for all that mattered. She was sure no one else would believe her. “Look what the cat dragged in, Erin Gilbert what are you doing here?” Erin was beyond relieved to hear Abby’s voice when she entered the lab. “Is Holtzmann here?”

“Depends, who’s asking?” Erin heard Holtzmann’s voice from somewhere in the lab. “Woah, do you think you can just walk in here without any explanation? What are you doing here, Gilbert?” Abby’s tone took her a little by surprise. Erin still wasn’t sure what was going on, but it seemed as if she and Abby weren’t friends.

“I can explain, I promise,” Erin said. She told them everything, how they had met again, how they had become the ghostbusters, that she and Holtzmann started dating after they saved New York. When she was done, a silence fell, then they started laughing loudly. It felt awful and Erin desperately started to look for proof. “You and Holtzmann dating, that’s the funniest thing I’ve heard in ages,” Abby laughed.

“Please, stop laughing. I can prove it,” Erin tried to no avail “Jillian, please listen.” Erin’s usage of Holtzmann’s first name caught her attention. “I assume you haven’t met me before, correct?” Holtzmann looked at Erin a little suspiciously.

“That’s correct.”

“However, if we were dating I would know things about you.”

“That’s also correct.”

“Ask me things about yourself, and I’ll answer them.” Erin hoped that everything she knew about her girlfriend would also be correct here, otherwise she would be absolutely screwed.

“Okay, let’s start easy what’s my sign?”

“Virgo.” Holtzmann nodded to Erin’s relief. It wasn’t proof that everything would work, but at least she now knew that Holtzmann answered honestly. Erin didn’t really expect differently from Holtzmann.

“What’s the name of my mentor?”

“Rebecca Gorin.” Once again Holtzmann nodded.

“What’s my specialization?”

“Nuclear engineering, you got your Ph.D. at MIT,” Erin answered. Abby interrupted before Holtzmann could ask another question. “This is all information a stalker could also know, Holtzmann. You need to come up with better questions.”    

“Alright, what are the names of my children?”

“You don’t have any children, apart from four chinchillas that you keep referring to as your children,” Erin answered correctly once Abby still seemed to be unimpressed and demanded harder questions from Holtzmann. “Okay, I’m gonna ask you to write some things down that only I would know,” Holtzmann said while looking for a pen and paper. Erin started writing down a list as soon as the paper was handed to her. When she handed the paper back Holtzmann became bright red as she read the list. “Alright I believe her,” she said. Abby became curious and tried to grab the list from Holtzmann. She didn’t succeed at first but she managed to rip a part of the list off.

“After reading about Murphy’s law when you were eight you attached buttered toast to your family cat to see if it would really cause a paradox,” Abby read aloud, “wait, that actually happened? I thought it was just something you told to impress girls.”

"Nope, it actually happened," Holtzmann said, "I wasn't allowed near her for a whole month."

"How did you attach the toast to the cat? And please don't say duct tape."

"I'm not a monster, Abby! I used a scarf and I dropped her on pillows so she would have a soft landing if she were to land." Holtzmann looked hurt at the fact that her friend thought she would actually hurt a cat. "Okay, I'm sorry. I believe you," Abby said and continued to read the list. “Oh my god, Holtzmann. You were the one who broke my PKE-meter, and you blamed Kevin for it? That’s really uncool” Holtzmann laughed a bit sheepishly and mumbled an apology. “Okay, maybe I shouldn’t have read that, but I’m going to remember that in case I need to blackmail you,” Abby said as she read the last line on the paper. 

* * *

“You’re better at baking than I thought,” Erin said when she put the cookies in the oven. “Wait til you taste them, you’ll marry me on the spot,” Holtzmann said with a big grin on her face. Erin knew these jokes were meant playful and that she didn’t actually mean it but it still made her feel fuzzy inside. Life just felt perfect here. “Hey, um-I was thinking of maybe going to the reunion after all,” Erin said. Holtzmann gave her a surprised look.

“Are you sure? Why the sudden change?”    

“Yeah I think I’m sure, but the reason why is kind of stupid,” Erin paused “It’s really stupid actually, so promise that you won’t laugh at me.” Holtzmann made the promise, so Erin would continue with her story. “Okay, as you know I was bullied badly,” Erin paused again and continued when Holtzmann gave her a nod “I guess I just want to show them how successful I turned out to be.” Erin waited for Holtzmann to laugh anyway, but that didn’t happen.

“Okay, I guess we’re going then. Can I still be your trophy wife?”  

* * *

Now Holtzmann and Abby finally believed Erin, they started working on a way to get her back where she belonged as quickly as possible. Erin mainly worked together with Holtzmann and while they were working together Holtzmann would ask her questions about where she was from and about the relationship they had there. This inevitably went along with a lot of flirting from Holtzmann’s side. Erin hadn’t expected her to act otherwise. Her Holtzmann still flirted with her but that usually happened in a different way since they were in a relationship. The flirting from this Holtzmann almost made her feel nostalgic. Even working together like this made her feel nostalgic. Back home she also worked with Holtzmann, but it was different somehow.

“Erin, I think I worked out what this is with the different universe thing,” Holtzmann said while she showed Erin a site on her phone. “Holtzmann, this is a conspiracy theory site.”

“So? They make valid points. There is this theory that for every decision that is made other universes are created where the other decisions were made. That could explain why we never met in this universe.”

“Okay, let’s assume that’s what happened here. What would be the difference between our universes?”     

“In this universe, we don’t know each other but in yours, we do. I must say I’m a bit jealous of me in your universe for having a hot girlfriend,” Holtzmann said while winking at Erin, “so let’s start there. You said you came to us because of the book, but I think that in this universe you’re not aware of the book being sold again. So you never came to us,” Holtzmann said with a proud grin on her face. This was a pretty solid theory but Erin was not sure how it would help her return home.       

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> For anyone who isn't familiar with Murphy's law, it's an unscientific law. According to this law anything that can go wrong, will go wrong. Following this law, a buttered toast will always fall butter side down. A cat also always lands on its feet, but if you were to attach buttered toast to this cat it would create a paradox. Dropping a cat with buttered toast attached to its back will spin in the air endlessly according to this law. Of course, it doesn't work like that in real life because of gravity etc. that's why it is an unscientific law I guess. In a way, eight year old Holtz also proved the law, because anything that could go wrong went wrong. Her test failed and she got punished for using her cat for experiments.


	8. Chapter 8

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> There was a bit of confusion about the universes in the last chapter and I wasn't really sure how to make it more clear in this chapter, but just like in the last chapter whenever there's a line between two paragraphs it switches universes. I hope this makes it more clear :)

Going to a high school reunion had sounded like a bad idea when it was first mentioned to Erin, and now she was here it felt like a bad idea again. She had already seen some of the old bullies and had nervously tried to hide from them as much as possible. Abby wasn’t nervous, the bullies didn’t get to her at all just like when they were younger. Erin felt a bit of jealousy when she looked at Abby being all confident while she clutched onto Holtzmann’s arm. She wished she could blame Holtzmann for bringing her here, but she had told her multiple times that if she didn’t want to go she really didn’t have to. In fact, they would leave immediately if she wanted to.

No matter how awkward and anxious Erin felt she wanted to stay. In this universe, she could actually show them she was doing fine, and that she had turned out to be quite successful. Of course, in her own universe she had gotten her tenure, but something about being successful as a paranormal scientist felt as a bigger victory. Now they had to admit she wasn’t crazy, and now she was the one who saved everybody from the ghosts that they never believed in. Holtzmann had dressed really nicely as well. She had shrugged it off when Erin asked her about it before they left for the event, but Erin knew Holtzmann did it for her. “I’m gonna get us some punch, back in a sec,” Erin didn’t want her to go but it felt stupid to ask that of her.

“I’m gonna talk with some people, are you coming?” Abby offered. Erin declined and mumbled something about wanting to wait for Holtzmann. Erin wanted the bullies to know she was happy and successful now, but actually approaching them was a bit too much. Luckily Holtzmann came back before anybody tried to talk to Erin. “Abby’s off, talking with some people. I honestly don’t know how she’s doing it,” Erin said as she noticed Holtzmann looking around for Abby. “Alright, do you also wanna do that?”

“They’ll probably just bring up the past and maybe even pretend nothing ever happened.” Erin was almost certain that would happen. Some of them might even take it as far and pretend they used to be friends in high school, but Erin knew better. Abby was the only person who was nice to her back then. “Erin Gilbert, is that you?” Erin’s heart skipped a beat, but she calmed down immediately as soon as she saw it was one of her old science teachers approaching her. “Miss Wright! It’s nice seeing you here,” Erin said happily. “I heard that you pursued your career in science, and saved New York,” Erin beamed upon hearing that. Miss Wright had always been one of her favorite teachers. “And you’re here with your wife, I assume,” Miss Wright gestured at Holtzmann. “Not yet, I’m doctor Jillian Holtzmann, her fiancée.”

“Doctor? Are you a scientist as well?” Miss Wright asked. “Yes, I’m specialized in nuclear engineering,” Holtzmann replied. Even though Erin’s relationship with Holtzmann was sort of fake, Erin did feel proud when she was standing next to Holtzmann and pretended to be her fiancée. Holtz was pretty, smart, and funny, she was amazing, and Erin wanted everyone to know she had managed to get someone who was this perfect. But there was also a big part of her that was really anxious about it, not everyone was as accepting of same gender couples as miss Wright. She was certain that if they had known this about her back in the day, they would have bullied her even more. Even now they might think less of her because of this.   

Erin knew it was stupid to care about what these people thought of her, but she couldn’t help it. It felt as if now was the moment to show everyone she was not weird or worthless like they made her believe all those years ago. And that felt better than smashing up someone’s car, although that still could be a great plan B. 

* * *

“Holtz, can we please stop testing? I’ve had enough things blow up in my face for today.” Erin was starting to feel hopeless. At this rate, she would probably die of an explosion before she could even make it back home. She had paid attention when her Holtzmann explained the weapon to her, but she hadn’t explained everything in detail. Luckily, the Holtzmann from this universe was just as skilled as the Holtzmann from hers. In a few weeks, they managed to create something similar to the weapon that sent her here, but they hadn’t gotten it to work so far.

“Whaaat? Things blowing up in your face is the best part of the job. I just need to make a few tiny adjustments.” Holtzmann was already taking her invention apart and inspecting it closely for any mistakes.

“That’s also what you said for the last ten times. I say we call it a day and continue tomorrow,” Erin suggested. Holtzmann agreed reluctantly but continued tinkering with the weapon.

* * *

“If it isn’t our ghost girl Erin Gilbert.” The nickname alone gave Erin shivers down her spine. Of course, just as Holtzmann was getting some more drinks one of the former bullies decided to approach her. “So turns out you’re not as crazy as we all thought,” he said as if it was a compliment. Erin tried to spot Holtzmann in the crowd, but she was nowhere to be seen. Great, she just had to deal with this one alone. “No, turns out I wasn’t crazy at all,” Erin said bitterly.

“You turned out to be pretty hot too.” Was he seriously trying to hit on her? Erin felt extremely uncomfortable and tried to find a way out of this conversation. “We should get some drinks together sometime. Let me give you my number.”

“Sorry, but I’m engaged.” Erin put her hand up to show him the ring that Holtzmann gave her the night she had proposed.

“He doesn’t have to know, now does he?” He said with the creepiest smile on his face. Erin couldn’t believe this guy. He had relentlessly bullied her for years and now he was convinced she would cheat on her fiancée with him. “Hey buster, that’s not how you get a pretty girl. This is how you do it.” Erin felt incredibly relieved when she heard Holtzmann’s voice. Then before she could properly process what Holtzmann just said, Holtz kissed her on her lips. It was a soft and very brief kiss, but it was enough to make Erin feel weak in her knees. “Doctor Jillian Holtzmann, Erin’s fiancée. I work with nuclear weapons. When you google my name the first thing that pops up is an article about that time I put a guy in a coma,” Holtzmann said matter-of-factly. Erin had never seen a straight guy hurry away from two women in a relationship this fast.

“That was awesome,” Holtzmann grinned. Erin just stared at Holtzmann with an open mouth, overwhelmed with what just happened. “Honey, you’re catching flies.” Erin closed her mouth. “That was amazing,” she whispered still amazed. Holtzmann had just kissed her and scared away one of her former bullies. Erin doubted if this day could get any better.

“Holtzmann, did you just threaten a guy who was hitting on Erin?” Abby had apparently left the people she was talking to as soon as she heard what had happened. “In her defense, he really deserved it,” Erin said, “he was being really creepy.”

“Who was it?” Abby asked. She was obviously trying to hide that she also was enjoying this a lot, but Erin pretended not to notice it.

“Chad Miller.”

“Oh my god.”

* * *

 “Let’s play twenty questions,” Holtzmann suggested. She and Erin were still hanging around in the lab hours after Patty and Abby left. “You sound like a desperate teenage boy,” Erin said. She had played twenty questions with her Holtzmann many times before and she knew exactly what kind of questions she could expect. Before Holtzmann could propose something else to do a loud explosion interrupted their conversation followed by a lot of smoke.

Holtzmann jumped up, grabbed a fire extinguisher and ran towards the malfunctioning machine that had caught on fire. “It looks like you’re gonna be stuck in this universe a little longer,” Holtzmann said as she put the fire out. The machine didn’t stop making weird noises, and another explosion followed. The second explosion startled Holtzmann, but she quickly put out the second fire as well. The weird noises didn’t stop nor did it stop exploding.

“Shit, what do we do? What do we do?” Erin started panicking when Holtzmann clearly couldn’t get her invention under control.

“I have enough extinguishers to keep this going for quite a while, but I don’t know how safe that would be,” Holtzmann said seeming surprisingly calm, “it might be a good idea to bring this baby outside though.” She tried to shove it forward with her foot, but that caused another loud explosion. “I think that’s gonna leave some permanent ear damage,” Holtzmann shouted.

“Are you okay?” Erin yelled over the loud noises the machine was making. She got no answer back from Holtzmann. “Holtz! Are you okay?” she yelled harder this time.

“I think I have hearing damage, Erin,” Holtzmann yelled back, “also I think we might want to evacuate the building.”

* * *

“So, how was the reunion?” Patty asked first thing when she saw the three other ghostbusters entering the firehouse. They had just gotten back from Michigan and were exhausted from the flight, except Holtzmann who seemed to have an endless source of energy.

“Amazing, I threatened a guy. And I also secretly slashed his tires even though both Erin and Abby told me not to do it,” Holtzmann said enthusiastically, “I only slashed two tires. This way he either has a beautiful car with tires that don’t match with each other, or he has to pay for the replacement of the unharmed tires out of his own pocket. Because insurance doesn’t cover replacement of tires that are still good.”

“This is exactly why you guys need me, oh my god,” Patty said. Holtzmann started to defend herself and told Patty exactly what happened at the reunion. “Okay, I believe he’s an asshole,” Patty admitted, “but he’s gonna know you were the one who slashed his tires. You literally threatened this dude after he tried to steal your girl.”

“Sweet, sweet Patty, you’re forgetting that I threatened him with nuclear weapons. He’s going to be too afraid to do anything about it.” The way Chad Miller looked when Holtzmann told him about the nuclear weapons was something Erin hoped she would never forget.

“Okay guys, what Holtzmann did was cool, but you know what’s even better? The fact that some of the stupid skeptic science teachers apologized to me and Erin for not believing us back then,” Abby said. While the bullying never seemed to do much to Abby, the fact that even the science teachers never believed her did hurt her badly back in the day. Maybe even more than she would ever let on.

* * *

The entire lab was now covered in smoke, the machine was still making weird noises but it seemed like the explosions had stopped for now. Holtzmann looked around to see if Erin was hurt, but she could hardly see anything through the thick clouds of smoke. She did hear some coughing but it was hard to locate where the sound was coming from. The explosion really messed up her hearing.

“Erin, are you okay?” Holtzmann vaguely heard Erin respond, but couldn’t make out what she just said. She lowered herself to the floor so she could see a bit better and quickly spotted Erin standing not too far away from her. She seemed to be fine. Holtzmann got up again and grabbed Erin’s hand. “Let’s go,” she shouted as they started to run.    


	9. Chapter 9

When Erin woke up she had the feeling as if something significant was suddenly missing from her life. She tried to remember what it was, but her mind came up blank. Erin looked around her room in the hope that she could figure out what was wrong, but there wasn’t anything odd or missing as far she could tell. Everything was exactly in the same place as she left it the night before. In the last few weeks, nothing happened either to cause this feeling, no one had left her or passed away. Yet, there was this awful feeling as if she lost the most important thing in her life.

It wasn’t the first time that she woke up feeling sad or empty, this, however, felt different. It felt just like waking up in an empty bed after a breakup. _It can’t be that I haven’t dated anyone in ages_. Erin was single by choice, she didn’t need anyone in her life to be happy. But for the first time in years, she actually felt lonely when she woke up alone in her apartment. She usually enjoyed the silent weekends she spent reading alone, but now the silence felt like a painful reminder that something or someone was missing. The worst part was that she couldn’t place what was making her feel so miserable.

Erin ignored the feeling and got out of bed to make breakfast and do some work afterward. But she failed to even start with her work, whatever this was left her unable to focus on anything. She considered calling her mother to ask what was going on but quickly decided against it. Erin’s relationship with her parents had never been a good one. She only saw them for the holidays, she never wanted to go, but her parents always knew how to guilt trip her into coming.

Whenever she was at her parents’ home, they would both endlessly critique her life choices. _Erin, isn’t it time you get married to a nice man? You know, before people start thinking something’s wrong with you_ , her mother had always cared more about what other people would think about them instead of what Erin actually wanted. She had always been obsessed with being the picture perfect family.

Her father actually mainly ignored her existence, but whenever he did acknowledge Erin it was to point out some flaw in her. Erin had done so much in her life to try to please her parents, but whatever she tried, it never seemed to work. Erin sighed and stared blankly into the distance. When did her life get so miserable? Erin told herself the feeling would go away eventually, but it didn’t.

When Erin stood in the big hall preparing her lecture she still felt empty and sad. After her lecture, she didn’t feel much better either. If this wouldn’t go away quickly, she might look for a therapist again. Someone coughed, but Erin didn’t notice.

“Professor Gilbert?” It was one of Erin’s students who had apparently coughed. Erin had forgotten his name but he frequently came to her lectures.

“Oh sorry, how can I help you?”

“I- uh I bought this online after my girlfriend recommended it to me and I just wanted to say that it’s really good.” The student held a book in his hands, but Erin couldn’t quite see what book it was.

“What is it?” Erin asked. It wasn’t uncommon for students to recommend books to Erin, but she didn’t expect to see this title on the book. “How did you find that?”

“On Amazon, professor. You wrote this, didn’t you?” Erin didn’t know how to react, it was her name on the cover of the book.

“It was a long time ago, I don’t believe in that stuff anymore,” Erin answered. The student looked disappointed.

“Oh okay, thanks for your time anyways,” he said finally as he exited the lecture hall. Immediately after he left, Erin opened her laptop and googled ‘Ghosts from our past’. The first thing that popped up was a link with a ghost emoji doing a little dance. Erin rolled her eyes and clicked on it. Erin read the text on Amazon and then clicked through to read more about the author.

_After finally finding proof on the existence of ghosts, Abigail continues her research on the paranormal with her fellow Ghostbusters._

“Proof, yeah right,” Erin scoffed. If Abby had actually found hard evidence Erin would have known about it. The whole world would have known about it. Despite her skepticism, Erin couldn’t resist finding out more about this so called proof. She typed 'Ghostbusters' in the search bar and looked at the results. Most of the results were articles questioning whether they were frauds or not. Erin found a video of a supposed ghost on the Ghostbusters’ YouTube channel. She clicked on it just to find out how bad it would be. But moments later Erin stared open mouthed at her computer screen, this ghost looked like the one she had seen when she was little. It wasn’t the specific ghost that had visited her nightly as a kid, but she remembered that ghost well enough to know for sure that this could be a real one.

Erin googled the Ghostbusters’ address and checked her watch. She had a few hours left before her next lecture started, she could just hop by and ask for an explanation. Erin walked out of the building and hailed a cab. She gave the driver the address she had found on the internet when she got in. After a short ride, the cab stopped in front of a Chinese restaurant. “We’re here.” Erin gave the driver a confused look.

“Are you sure?”

“This is the address you gave me,” he answered. Erin paid and left the cab. She checked the address again, maybe it was some kind of prank. Erin decided to enter the building anyway. If there was evidence she wanted to see it with her own eyes. According to the directions, she had to go upstairs and so she did. She could see a lab, but as far as she could tell there was no sign of anyone present in the lab. A radio was playing 80’s music, but there seemingly wasn’t anyone to listen to it.  

“Hello?” Erin asked, “I’m looking for Abby.”

“Abby’s not here, but if you’re pretty, I will probably help you,” Erin couldn’t locate where the voice was coming from, she tried to spot whoever had just answered her but the lab still appeared to be empty. When she turned back around suddenly someone was standing in front of her. “Boo!” Erin almost fell over and her heart nearly left her body. “Sheesh, you are really pretty. How can I assist you?” the blonde woman asked. Erin’s face turned red.

“Who are you?” Erin’s heart was still beating wildly. But it was probably not all due to the fact that the woman had just scared the living hell out of her. The blonde stuck her hand out to introduce herself. 

“Holtzmann, I’m a little radioactive but I’m also a hundred percent girlfriend material,” she said while winking at Erin. Erin felt her face becoming even redder.

“Holtzmann? That’s a name, I also have a name,” Erin blurted out. She could bang her face into a wall. Why did she just say that? Why was she suddenly so nervous around this woman? She was straight, there was no reason for her to act like this. Maybe she was nervous because Holtzmann looked a bit like a mad scientist. But Erin knew damn well that this wasn’t a scared nervous, it was a kind of nervous she felt when her crush had talked to her back in high school. 

Holtzmann smiled, she had a beautiful smile. “I’m Erin, it’s short for Erinterested in you. I mean I- eh I’m interested in what you’re doing here, your work.” Erin couldn’t even believe what she was saying anymore. A big part of her really wanted to run away screaming and hide before she could say even more embarrassing things, but she came here for evidence of ghosts. That was the only reason why she was staying here. She didn’t want to stay here for Holtzmann and her beautiful smile, that was definitely not why she was still here.

“I heard you have evidence on the existence of ghosts, that was why I came here,” Erin said and she gave herself a mental high five for not saying anything too weird this time.

“What do you want me to show you?” Holtzmann asked.

“Oh ehm.” A really inappropriate answer nearly slipped Erin’s mouth. _Don’t make it weird Erin, oh my god._ “Whatever you want to show me.” Erin was glad that the filter between her brain and her mouth hadn’t stopped working completely.

“Well there’s something I kind of want to show you, but I don’t think I can,” Holtzmann paused as if she was still debating whether she could or couldn’t show Erin, “I do have some ghosts trapped here, but I’m not completely sure what would happen if I let it loose. Abby will definitely kill me if something happened here, so that’s kind of a bad plan. You know, you should come with us on a bust sometime. If you give me your number, I’ll contact you.” Holtzmann winked again, but Erin seemed to be completely oblivious to the fact that Holtzmann was flirting with her.

If Holtzmann wasn’t interested in Erin, she would just have shown her the tapes and recordings she made during the busts. She even had samples of slime that she had scraped off of her coveralls. But Holtzmann wanted to impress Erin, show her a real ghost and now she also had an excuse to ask for her number.  

“Oh, of course, let me write it down for you. Do you have a pen and paper?” Holtzmann handed Erin her phone.

“You can just put it in. I’ll remember to call you, don’t worry.” Erin typed in her phone number and handed the phone back to Holtzmann. “You forgot to put your name in. It was Erinterested in my work, wasn’t it?” Erin’s face became bright red again.

“I’m sorry, I didn’t know why I said that. It’s just Erin.”

“Noted, I’ll see you next time then, just Erin.” Holtzmann laughed at her own joke. Erin mumbled something back and left the building, still flustered. Not much later, Abby and Patty entered the lab carrying their lunch. They picked up their own lunch now since they had given up on Benny to bring them their lunch.

“Who was that woman that just left the building?” Abby asked.

“You mean Erin?”

“I knew it! What was she doing here?” Then it all clicked in Holtzmann’s brain. She had just flirted with Erin Gilbert, the woman she heard so many awful things about. How was she going to tell this to Abby?

“That was Erin Gilbert, wasn’t she? That would explain why she was looking for you. You never told me she was so pretty.”

“Don’t tell me you flirted with her,” Abby said sternly, but from the look on Holtzmann’s face, she could already tell that she had flirted with Erin. “You’ve seen pictures of her, how did you not know that was Erin Gilbert?”   

“The pictures don’t do her justice, she has really beautiful eyes.”

“Holtzmann, you useless lesbian,” Abby was interrupted by Patty before she could finish her sentence.  

“Guys, let’s not talk about this on empty stomachs, okay? You both get grumpy when you’re hungry.” Abby and Holtzmann agreed with Patty and retrieved their lunch from the plastic bags.

“Oh, Abby, I kind of promised Erin she could come on a bust with us. She gave me her number, so I could call her.” Abby looked at Holtzmann full disbelief

“I can’t believe y...”

Abby was cut off by Patty again. “No fighting over girls until we’ve had our lunch. We’ve been over this.”


End file.
